


A Hero to All But Himself

by hunter049



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: Amanda is a Vindictive Piggy, Bill's Been Through a Lot, Family is Relative, Gen, Mentions of Left 4 Dead, Standard Doctor Malpractice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-01 23:19:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14531550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunter049/pseuds/hunter049
Summary: Bill has always protected his family, no matter who it consisted of, with everything he has. This has caught the eye of a certain pig, who enlists the mad scientist to shatter his resolve.





	1. The Deal is Struck

Herman turned the pages of a research journal, his twisted laughter ringing out as he fondly recalled the test subjects the journal held as evidence for another of his successful extractions. He’d removed his uncomfortable mouthpiece but the mad grin remained on his face, at least until he felt the world around him shift slightly, more a change in the feeling of the atmosphere than any change to the institute simulacrum he called home.

The Doctor activated his electric field as a precautionary measure. Nothing could permanently harm him, not after the Entity’s blessing, but his hypothesis that he could still be hurt or even temporarily killed by something or someone with enough damage output was not one he wanted to test out personally. He sensed the sparks around him bounce and conduct along a crouched form slowly making its way toward his office, and waited for the scream of a rather unfortunate wayward survivor. It did not come, to his surprise, indicating it was a fellow servant of the dark god, likely either the haggard cannibal with strange glyphs that distorted everything he’d learned about the world, or the young woman with a fascination of torture and swine.

A pink snout poking into his study and looking around confirmed his suspicion, and he simply turned the page of his journal to continue reading. Her low form slinked into the study and then turned to look at him, ridiculous pig snout wobbling a bit with each tiny movement. She stood up and watched him, his eyes meeting her gaze and holding it before returning to his notes. His grin was far from amused, now holding instead a curious and guarded demeanor, and her usual stance gave a similar vibe. 

The two murderers said nothing, Herman unsure why she’d bother to enter his space to simply stare at him, until she spoke up, mildly muffled by the pig mask. “I want your help.”

He nearly snorted, his grin shifting to one he often wore when his subjects pleaded for their lives or tried to futilely bargain their way out with him. “Oh? What help could I provide, Miss Young?” 

While he couldn’t see it, he was sure she rolled her eyes at his formality. Amanda plucked the pig mask from her head, her hair much shorter than the hair that was now clearly part of the costume. Her eyes were sharp and filled with loathing, though at what, he could only imagine. He’d gleaned some information from her background, the Entity honoring his questions and naturally inquisitive nature, but he still needed some thread to tie it all together.

He was aware of course, that she had died. That was a distinction that separates some of those in the Entity’s realm from others, survivor or servant. Herman had learned she’d already had a knack for killing, placing people in elaborate traps and scenarios and walking in the footsteps of someone who taught her. That seemed to be where her ability came from, at least the one dealing with her unique kind of bear trap.

From talks with her now and then, he’d also noted her arrogant and rather hostile personality. She viewed the survivors as people who didn’t deserve anything but the pain and death she was capable of inflicting. Amanda seemed to enjoy the panic and fear they displayed as each survivor tried to yank the reverse bear trap off on their first encounter with it, and sounded almost ecstatic when she spoke of feeling the trap go off on her prey.

He focused on her words, now that she began to speak to him again rather than pierce him with her glare. “I want you to bring one of those pigs down a peg.” Evidently the irony was lost on her. “That soldier keeps trying to prove himself as someone who’s any better than the rotting pigs in my space. He’s not! None of them are!” 

Herman eyed the short fireball, asking, “Alright, and how do you propose I do that? I’ve electrocuted him to death quite a few times already, as you know.” He had an idea himself, something he’d wanted to test out already, but the Doctor wanted to know what she had in mind.  
At this, Amanda shuffled uncomfortably. Her sharp eyes scanned the floor almost nervously, before she scoffed and handed him a folded paper from within her coat. “Here. This is a letter that some asshole threatened me with. Well, a copy of it, one that the Entity made to push me forward.” 

Herman read through it in seconds, guessing the woman harmed by Amanda had a bond with her then mentor. “I see...” He waited, preferring her to explain her plan and keep his own cards close to his chest. Government work taught him clearly the value of secrecy and information.

“It’s something that works for me because it’s a secret I want kept. It’s something I didn’t want found out. Something that would have hurt me a lot. So I figure, maybe it can affect your power, if you use it as one of the add-ons or offerings for yourself this time around. Maybe something else you have can help convince the Entity to let you enter with less of those ingrates, so you can locate and isolate the soldier faster.” She looked away, putting her mask on as if to hide her face.

“... I think this will be an interesting experiment,” he approved. “Alright then. I’ll do this, though naturally, when the time comes, I do expect you to repay this favor.” Amanda barely nodded but the snout bounced enough for him to easily notice. 

She looked up at the taller killer. “Okay. I know you’re a scientist and you love to write notes, so I want to read what you end up writing down. Make it juicy.” Herman’s eyebrow raised at the word and her rather interesting desire for the information, but he nodded. With that, the Pig watched him for a second before taking her leave. 

The Doctor looked through his various dossiers, picking out a page he sought out. His overseer had written a note emphasizing that “Herman Carter is best left to work alone, he excels in a one-on-one interrogation.” He let out a laugh as the foolish man had been far more correct than he’d realized, having given so much power to someone who they’d recruited and molded into a torturous murdering machine. “So much for intelligence agency...” 

He tossed the paper into the fireplace in his office. Putting Amanda’s letter in his wide pockets as well as a copy of his Discipline folder, Herman put on the mouth guard with some displeasure and finished readying for the trial to come. 

“Now I’ll finally learn how your pieces look when you break, Overbeck...” He laughed to himself, as the world shifted and he appeared in another version of his own facility. Herman could feel that he and the veteran were alone, and the mad Doctor laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First fanfic I've written in quite a while, and though I hope I've grown some and that leads to better writing, that's up to the readers to decide. With that said, hope you enjoyed. Feel free to leave feedback of any sort.


	2. Home

The campfire crackled and spat up embers into the air. A much smaller ember burned at the end of the old man’s cigarette, dimming as he inhaled its toxic, satisfying payload. His eyes took in the surroundings, but not much had changed. Claudette was leafing through her small notebook, having written down everything she could and making it work as a journal and guide alike. He chuckled and looked to the powerfully built jock asleep on the ground against a log, the smaller man they’d come to see as a leader snoozing with him, Dwight’s head resting on David’s shoulder. Other than that, for now they were the only ones at the campfire, the others off to explore the woods or getting into mischief.

He wondered what the others would be up to. Bill grinned to himself as he pictured Nea spraying every available surface with her tag, as she called it. With that sort of boundless energy, it was doubtless that Meg would tag along, the others rather slow for her tastes as she’d once confided. 

_ “Sorry gramps, but I’ve got to keep running, keep moving. It’s how I’ve always managed to stay alive, keep running forward.” Her confident grin brought a soft smile to his face.  _

_ “Yeah, well maybe I’d catch up if it wasn’t for my bad knee,” he chuckled, waving the girl off when he felt her almost vibrating with overflowing energy.  _

The soldier bit his cigarette as he realized just how fond he’d grown of the people around him, all trapped in the nightmare they called home now but all working together to keep each other alive and happy. He specialized in the alive part, always making sure that his friends would make it out, even if they were on a hook and miles from the nearest gate with the killer breathing down their necks.

“S-sir?” Bill blinked and looked to the only waking survivor near him, and Claudette was watching him with her big eyes and thin glasses. He smiled, cigarette bit again to keep it safe. 

“Kid, you can call me Bill, I’ve told ya before.” She looked a bit guilty at that so he tried to distract her. “Something on your mind, Claudette?”

The young woman nodded. “Yes... I wanted to thank you s- um, Bill. You saved me when,” at this she shuddered, “the Pig was keeping watch and I was on the hook. You even got hurt for my sake.” 

Bill hadn’t survived so much mayhem without a good sense of perception. “It’s what I do, kid, don’t mention it. But that Pig... Does she scare you?” He could tell by her tiny flinch that he was right.

She hesitated but nodded. “... Yes. It’s like I can feel how much she wants us dead whenever she looks at me. It’s different from the others... Some of them might enjoy hurting us, others seem to just be doing their job, but she... She hates us. She actually hates us, and I don’t know why, and it terrifies me...”

The soldier moved and put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Yeah well I’m starting to hate her too,” he joked, small grin present on his face. “I’ll do my best to keep her from having any of you. Plus, we do have David there,” he pointed out the drooling survivor. “You know just as well as I do that he loves to annoy all those killers, and that buys us a lot of time to finish generators. And he’s taken plenty of hits when one of us is on their shoulder.”

In that sense, Bill admired David King. They shared a desperate need to protect the ones they care about, and they were glad to take a slash or bash if it meant someone else was spared more pain. Of course, David had a tendency to boast about that sort of thing, and his last name was often the source of even more to boast with. He shook his head at the sleeping pair, but his small grin stayed on his face. 

Claudette just smiled back shyly when he looked at her again. “Still. Thank you, Bill.”

Bill shook his head. “I ought to be thanking you, kid. You’ve wrapped me up so many times I’ve lost count, and I know it’s the same for the others, both in and out of trials. You’ve got some sort of sixth sense for when we’re hurt, and damn if you don’t always go to us and fix us up.”

The botanist blushed and smiled, nodding. “Well, um, thank you for that.” She stood up and brushed her lap. “I think I’ll go and collect more plants for healing tinctures and such. It’s been nice talking to you, though.” 

She took her leave, and Bill just stared into the flames, reminiscing about days past, the world at war as he grew, fighting to keep peace as his nation saw fit, and then fighting for his life and those of his loved ones as the world collapsed around them. 

The cries of protest and denial from his family, of course mainly Zoey despite her anger toward him at the time. He took in a deep breath from his cigarette, letting the smoke burn in his lungs for a good time before letting it out in a cloud. “It’s a good burn...” he sighed. It helped against the pain of remembering those he might never see again, those he’d never want to see in the Entity’s realm.

_ “I love all of you guys,” Louis said forlornly, and that didn’t settle well with Bill at all. “Listen, I want you to kill me before-” That was the last straw. He’d been the voice of hope for so long, hearing him give up to that extent wasn’t something the soldier was about to let happen. _

_ “Save it. Cover me! I got this!” Of course the damn generator would stall. Of course the bridge was louder than a damn Howitzer. Of course that brought more Tanks than he’d ever seen at once. Of goddamn course the one last chance he had at giving them a life worth living was in jeopardy, because they couldn’t ever catch a break.   _

_ He lunged off the bridge, landing in a roll and opening fire on the infected around him. He heard Zoey scream his name, before Francis backed him up, “You heard the man! Cover him!” _

_ Bill would grin with pride that the idiot finally talked some sense if the situation was any lighter. But he had a job to do, and with that thought in mind he lit a molotov with his cigarette and threw it to light the massive infected Tanks on fire. “Eat fire you goddamn animals.”  _

_ “This way, you sons of bitches...” he muttered as he had the full attention of the horde and three Tanks, all chasing after him intent to rip him limb from limb. _

_ “What’s he doing? He’s getting all the Tanks to follow him Louis! He’s going to get himself killed!” Bill squished any fear for his life, years of war and weeks of this zombie bullshit enough to do so with ease. A few infected tried to stop him, grab him or pin him down but each met a swift end, pistol and assault rifle firing. Finally he made it to the generator, and with a good kick and press to the start button, it roared to life and ensured that his family was safe. He could- _

“Bill!” A cheery voice snapped him out of his memories. He looked over to the source, shaking his head in exasperation at the sight of the man in the tan blazer. “You’re pretty quiet, there. Thought maybe you’d want to play, get your mind off whatever’s burning you up.” The gambler grinned as always, a deck of cards flowing from one hand to the other.

“Yeah, Ace, maybe I would if you didn’t have two cards up your sleeve at any given moment,” he shot back, but his tone showed it was all good-natured. Ace put a hand to his chest and looked dramatically hurt, swaying as if the accusation was about to break or stop his heart.

“Me? Why, I’d never cheat like that, Bill! I’ve got Lady Luck on my side, I don’t need any edge to win.” The campfire made his ring shine as he spoke, the clover edged by the shadows of the metal. 

“Right, and when you stop bullshitting me, maybe we’ll talk.” Bill couldn’t help but grin back, the natural charm of the gambler leading to infectious smiles at his bold claims. Ace took a seat next to the soldier anyways, shrugging and setting up a game of solitaire for himself as he gave his company.

Bill watched idly, fine with the distraction. A yawn from behind the log the two sleeping men rested against caught his attention, and both waking men snorted at the disheveled Quentin waking up. “Finally got some shut eye, kid?”

The young man nodded tiredly and smiled. “Yeah... With those two so close by,” he gestured to Dwight and David, “I actually felt a bit safer. And um, you too, sir.” Bill just shook his head with a grin, looking past the sleepy boy at Claudette who’d returned and looked surprised at the fact more people were now there.

“Oh um, hi...” She waved at both men, crouching down to Quentin who was sitting up. “I found more plants, so I can make you more of that tea that stops you from dreaming. I-if you want more, of course, Quentin.” 

The young man nodded and smiled, “Thanks Claudette! I appreciate it a lot.” She blushed again and nodded, smiling back.

Bill sighed softly, smiling under his beard. Everyone was safe for now. It was all he could ask for. Then the campfire flared bright and everyone looked toward it, and everyone could feel that only one person was meant to be in the trial this time around, looking to the chosen soldier.

“Ah shit.”


	3. The Crescendo Event

Bill swore as the distortion of the world around him disorientated him for a few moments. One second, he’d quelled any nerves from the survivors around him, assuring them he’d be fine, asking with a gruff smile if they didn’t believe in him. Now, he was in the mad scientist’s lair. Some sort of American intelligence gathering facility, he’d gathered. As a soldier, he felt distaste at such cruel methods being developed, to the point of creating a man like the Doctor.

Still, he wasn’t going to make it out without a generator or two being done. The veteran relaxed, softening the footsteps of his combat boots. “Least there’s no one else to save...” With that small comfort, he knew he could work through the generators much quicker. It wasn’t much more difficult than his own training, taking apart and reassembling his beloved M16 rifle. Spotting one in a small room, he got to work.

It was nearly done by the time he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “Ah horseshit...” He muttered, going through a window and away from the source of the sparks, hiding in a locker in an adjacent room rather than in the same one as the generator. Bill huffed a small laugh as he felt the locker absorb the electricity, noting that Dwight had been correct in his observation of safety.

He froze as he heard the Doctor laugh, his stomach turning at how demented it sounded. He held his breath as he heard the generator get kicked roughly, the machine sputtering and sparking, then the metallic squeak of the locker in that room getting roughly opened. Bill grinned to himself that he’d thought a step ahead, but it dropped as he could almost feel the Entity’s eye on him. He’d made the mistake they all had at first, staying in one spot for too long, and he was too aware of the danger the birds of the realm provided.

He felt the oppressive feeling of the madman’s presence fade, exiting the locker as a crow landed on the top, watching him with a tilting head. “Shh...” He muttered, walking carefully away and going to finish the generator he’d worked on. A massive spark surprised him and singed his hand, making him cry out as the generator bucked and let out a burst. 

“Goddamn it!” He swore, feeling the sparks returning around him. As they jumped onto him and sank anywhere they could, he felt a pressure on his mind, until he couldn’t take it any longer and screamed. Cover totally blown, he vaulted over the window and began to run. 

He caught glimpses of the scientist following him through doorways and windows, yelling out again as a surge of lightning caught him and surged through his body. “Shit!” Bill cried out, before he felt the blunt impact of the Doctor’s weapon against his back. Faced with a slow escape or another blow, Bill scrambled through a window as fast as his screaming body would let him, panting and getting back to running away.

It reminded him far too much of his days at the end of the world. The pain all over, the adrenaline running through him to help him make it one more step, and the fact that he was inches from death if he made a mistake. Only difference was the enemy, but there was always an enemy. Bill vaulted another window, his eyes shooting open as he felt another impact from the weapon, crushing his side and winding him as he lay on the ground.

He had half a mind to get up and punch the shit eating grin off the Doctor’s face as the killer laughed above him. But Bill was struggling to just suck in a breath. He gasped once his body got over the shock, unable to do anything as he watched the Doctor charge up another bolt. He screamed, nearly blacking out from the pain.

Bill fought to push the darkness at the edge of his vision awake, his head swimming as he vaguely felt the scientist pick him up and sling him over his shoulder like a ragdoll. “Let go, damn it!” He weakly struggled against the iron grip holding him in place, but in his condition, it was hopeless anyways. 

His eyes were closed as he focused on wiggling and waiting for the hook to spear him through like a pig. Bill felt the Doctor toss him off but no piercing pain came, instead he landed with a grunt on a cold flat surface. He blinked and looked to see himself on something like an operating table.

“What the hell...?” He managed, before the Doctor electrocuted him again and began to lock down his writhing but stunned limbs with thick leather straps connected to the table. Bill fought the bonds as much as he could, but he suspected even at full strength he’d have no chance. “The hell are you doing?” He panted, worn out from fighting to survive for so long.

The Doctor didn’t respond, only laughing and breathing. Bill watched him, eyes tight from pain and confusion. He groaned, looking down to see his jacket matted with blood and a bit of it smearing the surprisingly clean silver surface. He fought off a grin; now he had a card to play, though not a particularly useful or good one. But if he could buy enough time, he could bleed out and die without encountering the Entity again. 

He watched the killer act like never before, not that he’d heard of at least. The Doctor brought out a small notebook from one of his coat pockets, along with a pencil, and he wrote something down before setting them on a nearby tray. Bill had no idea what was going on. Was the Doctor trying to experiment on him? Trying to convert him to be like them? Maybe kill him for good? There was no way to know.

He watched the Doctor’s hands charge up again with that awful lightning, and let it loose to strike the table and him. It conducted the shock, and he screamed as it was stronger and stuck around longer thanks to that. Still, he coughed and eyed the former man defiantly. It’d take more than that to break him.

Another shock and Bill convulsed as his muscles reacted violently. “Augh! Goddamn it help!” Now though, Bill felt an odd sort of presence, and a glimpse of pink and blue where he could never quite see. “N-no...” He stammered, screaming as another strong current ripped through his defenses.

He’d been in war, in active combat for his country. He’d been fighting for his life as he fended off infected, and soon fought for the lives of those he’d grown to care about. He even gave his life up so that theirs could continue. Having woken up in such a hellish eternal place, his worst nightmare was that one of them would end up there as well. And every glimpse of that pink and blue was starting to convince him it was coming true in the worst possible way.

The Doctor wrote another note down with his free hand, before charging up and shocking him again. Bill groaned and this time he felt something inside him shift, he could hear the whispers of things he couldn’t understand and was never meant to know. “Augh...” He felt as if the Entity was toying with his mind. Another bolt came before he knew it, and in the static fading from his sight, he could have sworn he saw someone at the edge of his vision. But they was gone when he tried to look.

“No... Goddamn it, stop!” Bill’s hands were balled up into fists, knuckles white as he realized the Doctor was just trying to break him down. He’d had training against it, but somehow he knew that’d be about as useful here as Tapp’s bulletproof vest.

The Doctor laughed now at his reaction, and Bill growled and fought against the restraints. “Let me go!” He heard more notes scratching into the notebook, and then screamed as another shock ripped through him.

Bill panted and felt sweat dotting his skin, his heart pounding. Worse of all, the pink blur was back, and he was terrified of the idea that he almost heard a soft laugh. Her laugh.

“N-No...” He muttered, eyes wide and head shaking. “No, it can’t be...” Bill’s eyes focused back from the fog of terror, and he glared at the killer with absolute hate. “You’re a sick sack of shit.” 

The Doctor chuckled, writing it down and administering another shock. Bill screamed and saw now a lithe form with pink and blue running through the doorway. “Go to hell, you piece of shit!” He yelled at the Doctor. The soldier peeked at his wound, noting that blood was pooling significantly now, almost dripping off the table. He was feeling lightheaded, but still, he had to keep resisting.

Now the killer walked over and placed a sparking hand over Bill’s heart, before letting loose a torrent of electricity. Bill writhed under the treatment, and he could hear her voice, almost clear as day. 

“You asshole!” She screamed. “I trusted you!” It tore his heart in half, and the tears that refused to fall from the shocks fell for her. 

“Z-” His train of thought crashed as another wave rolled through him. He could hear the Entity whispering faintly through the madness, trying to coax him closer to the darkness It controlled. “Fuck! Off!” 

The Doctor just laughed and with another voltage burst, Bill blacked out for a moment. He could hear her voice, calling his name fondly. “N-no damn it...” He groaned, shaking away the idea that she’d ever fall into the spidery legs of the Entity.

He came to, sweating and pupils only pinpricks as he swore he could hear her faintly, as if in one of the closets in the facility. “Zoey! Not her! Please!” He begged. The Doctor paused in his torture, writing down a few notes before preparing for another shock. 

What felt like hours later, surely, Bill was clinging to consciousness. He’d fought tooth and nail to stay up, to not let the madman electrocuting him get his deformed hands on his family, but he was at his limit. He was seeing mirages of her all over, one at a time, sometimes healing up with a medkit, other times smiling at him as she often did. 

One kept reappearing though, a scowl on her features at his actions in the past. He could hear her, rebuking him, furious, “We lost the doc because you couldn’t wait five minutes...!” She screamed at him, “Damn it, I trusted you!” He shook his head, mumbling, “We take care of our own, Zoey... We look after our own! That’s why I’m here...!” 

The Doctor’s mad laughs and scrawling broke him from the spell for a bit, enough for him to know the situation again. He gruffly chuckled, “You’re out of time, you crazy bastard...” The blood was still leaking from his wounds, his thrashing and the Entity’s rules preventing any sort of clotting, and he was soon to run out. The killer stopped laughing, scrawling more notes before setting them aside and rubbing his hands together. 

Bill knew what was coming next. He closed his eyes, unable to do anything but scream through the agony of his brain being fried, the whispers in his ears screaming as the madness rose with the lightning. It tore through his mind, wracking him with pain unlike any other he’d experienced.

It all crescendoed into an existence solely made of pain, before mercifully everything shut down to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait for those of you who did want another chapter, life was a bit hectic but I'll try to be quicker about it. First fanfic in a long time, so if you have any feedback I'm happy to hear it.


	4. Return

Despite having been spared the horrible process of having some of his hope eaten away, Bill still felt like the Entity spat him back out at the campfire. He was nearly sprawled against a log, his eyes adjusting to the flickering light of the fire and the forest around it.

Claudette was sitting on the far end of the log, watching him carefully with a medkit in her lap, just in case. Once she saw he was stirring awake, she approached him. “Bill, how are you feeling?”

“I’m fine kid, where’s everyone else?” It was just the pair by the campfire, and he wasn’t reassured when she looked away with a bit of a worried expression. 

“Dwight, David, Quentin and Laurie were sent out on a trial a while after you came back. You’ve been out cold for a few hours, I think.” She gave a small shrug, an apologetic smile on her lips, “I can’t really tell too well in here. Anyways, Ace is in the woods right now, he told me he wanted to find more coins to toss in.” 

The soldier nodded. “Thanks, Claudette.” Now that he had time to settle back into consciousness, he remembered just what he’d gone through at the charred hands of the doctor, and he shivered.

“Are you cold?” She asked, going over to a chest they’d newly acquired, on account of Meg and Nea carrying it out between them. It’d been far too close to the exit gate for the pair to resist taking it for the team. Claudette pulled out a blanket that lay at the bottom, passing it to him.

He took it, wrapping it around to quell any of her worries and make her feel like it helped. He rather would keep his family’s spirits up, even in small ways when he could. Still, he looked to her and noticed her worried gaze hadn’t faded and if anything had grown more pronounced as his trembling didn’t stop. “What’s the matter, kid?”

She was very rarely one to show anger, having an altruistic if mild personality. But her brow furrowed as her voice picked up a bit of an edge and she countered, “What happened in there, Bill? You were gone for what felt like hours already, and then stayed out cold nearly as long when you finally came back. There’s nothing the matter with me, but something has to be with you after whatever you went through. You’re still shaking, and I’m starting to think it’s got nothing to do with the temperature.”

Bill kept his face neutral, looking down toward the ground. “That doesn’t matter. It’s done. I’m out and I’m fine and-”

“Bullshit!” She interrupted, her normally soft brown eyes alight with furious concern. “Bill, you’re pale as a ghost and when you were out cold you were whimpering and mumbling... You don’t look any better than when you came back, and when you came back if it wasn’t for your restlessness you’d have looked like a corpse.”

“Heh... I’ve seen enough to know one...” His chuckle held zero humor, and he took out a cigarette, lighting it with the campfire and taking a drag. Claudette’s eyes resolutely refused to stop watching him, that same fiery look in the chocolate orbs, and when Bill met her gaze he froze. His eyes widened and he coughed, smoke sputtering out of his mouth. Claudette shifted to panic and smacked his back, trying to help him breathe again.

Once his coughing fit was over, he looked to her again, and Claudette noticed a softer quality to his normally battle-hardened eyes. “You remind me of her, now and again, even if I’d rather not think about her anymore, not in here.”

“... Is she whose name you were muttering? Zoey?” The soldier looked away once the name left her lips, and that was answer enough. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he shook his head, taking another drag stubbornly and this time exhaling a thick stream of toxic smoke. “She’s better off, right now. Without having to worry about me and without ever knowing this kind of shit exists. Hell, I’d thought twice before that life can’t possibly get shittier, and both damn times, I was proven wrong.”

The medic stayed quiet, watching him and listening. Bill bit the end of his cigarette and shifted to face her fully. “I ever tell you where I’m from? Doubt it, right?” At the shake of her head, he nodded. “Well, it ain’t pretty, let me tell you that. And knowing you, I think you might end up feeling pretty down, kid, so I’m warning you, if you don’t want to hear something like this, now’s your chance. I’ve been to war, Vietnam, one of the absolute worst, and trust me when I say this, that was nothing compared to the shit that came after.”

Claudette hesitated, but her eyes were sure as she looked at him and nodded. “I want to hear your story.” Bill shrugged, taking in a deep drag of his cigarette, then sighing it out. And so, he began his tale.

 

“And then everything went black. Figured I won even if I died doing it. Then I woke up here with all you kids, and Ace.” He took a last drag from his fourth dying cigarette before dropping it and stomping it dead with his combat boot. “So now I do my goddamn best to get you all out of every trial we get thrown into. It’s my job. It’s who I am.” 

Claudette wiped her shining eyes, nodding. “I’m sorry Bill... I can’t imagine how much you miss them.”

He sighed, deflating a bit, dropping his guard for the first time in who knows how long, just for a moment. “It’s better this way. I hope I never see them again if it means they never have to face this hellhole.” He put a gentle hand on her shoulder as she finished wiping her tears of sympathy. “Kid, you remind me so much of her at times that it hurts. Sometimes I can ignore it, other times I’m lucky enough to forget a little while, but every time you pull a stunt to help heal someone enough to get them out, or you go around worrying about us and keeping us safe in your own way, you just make me think back to her.

“She used to nag me and Francis about not smoking. Said it was pretty stupid to be killing ourselves in the middle of trying to survive a goddamn zombie apocalypse. And I don’t think I’d ever seen her that mad as when I left the doctor behind, girl had a heart too full of compassion and courage for her own good. Guess that’s why she and Louis always got along so well, both of them kept each other’s hopes up.” He shook his head, a small fond grin on his face. “Hell, you’re even ironing out the edges of an antisocial guy like she was, though I don’t think those two were together.” He chuckles, feeling lighter at the small poke and just telling her everything, letting it out for once.

Claudette wasn’t sure if she should feel more pleased and honored at the comparison or sad and sorry that she’d caused him so much pain so frequently, letting the joke about Jake slide as she had too much to think about. She opened her mouth to say something, but he put a hand up and shook his head. “Don’t say sorry again. I’ll always feel some pain, I’ll always think about her and them, because they’ve got a place in my heart. They’re my family.” His hand squeezed her shoulder. “But you’re all my family too, after what we’ve been through.” He smiled and stood up, groaning, “Legs were getting sore after sitting for so long...”

Only once he stood and looked at the rest of the campfire did he notice the four survivors quietly listening in as well, having come back at some point during his tale and decided to listen in. Laurie sniffled but used a clean rag to wipe the tears away, Quentin looked sad but seemed too tired to cry, Dwight rested on David’s shoulder and looked like he’d shed a few tears, and David’s cheeks were suspiciously shiny but he kept a strong facade, only nodding with shiny eyes to the soldier in respect.

The others stood too, stretching and wiping at their faces, and Claudette hesitated before hugging the old man tightly. He looked surprised, but his arms wrapped around her and held her close, protectively so. Slowly, the others began to hug around her to console and appreciate him, and Bill tugged his beret down to futilely hide the moisture at the edges of his own eyes. “Alright, alright, you lot need to get some rest, you’ve been through a lot.” He paused. “But I’m glad you all made it back safe.”

In the shadow of the closest trees, the gambler’s grin barely hid the downward wrinkles at the edge of his lips, his sunglasses obscuring the wetness of his eyes. He was flipping a coin of many he’d found before hearing the veteran’s tale. The constant sound of a coin whirring through the air let him focus on that rather than the reality of one of his closest friends living through such horrors. “And here I thought I was the one who mastered keeping a brave face...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, it's been a rather crazy week and while I'd hoped to post it for a weekly update, I ended up swamped with more than I expected in life for a bit.


	5. Finale

The trial had begun normally enough, at least. The campfire called him in, as well as Claudette, Ace, and David. He didn’t want anyone else in the trial, but he knew they’d likely sooner force their way in somehow than let what happened last time repeat itself. They each even gave him their own forms of reassurance as they stood next to him by the flames. 

David grinned with his cocky attitude, giving him a thumbs up, “We got this, gramps. You lot just keep popping those gens and leave the Killer to me.” Bill would rather be the bait, but somehow David’s stubbornness in that outweighed his own. Perhaps it was that same need to protect, along with the younger man’s sheer lust for a good fight.

Ace just gave him a couple of pews with his finger guns, beaming grin never leaving his face as he stopped and played with a nice pouch of salt. Did his mouth never ache? “Relajate, amigo.” He felt as if Ace winked under his shades, though who could tell? “We’ll get out together, all of us.”

“They’re right!” Claudette said confidently, returning to a sheepish smile and shrinking a bit when Bill looked at her. She was holding a small medkit, scratched and old but apparently usable. “We’ll get out together. I won’t leave any of you behind.” 

Bill smiled slightly under his beard at all of their attempts to keep his spirits up so soon after the Doctor incident. “Yeah. We’ll all make it out.”

With that, the campfire flared, their world bright red and orange before snapping to black.

He stumbled forward, a bit disorientated. His soldier’s instincts kicked in, and he focused on what clues were around him. No traps on the ground, no singing of any kind nearby. The Entity had chosen the farm with fields of wheat or corn or whatnot as their arena. Spotting the cold steel boxes with an odd doll on top, he grimaced as he realized who they were up against.

“Oh great...” He muttered. Bill knew how sadistic the Pig was, using her gruesome traps to force survivors to play her little game while buying her more time to hurt and do the same to more survivors, until they all died, escaped, or she ran out of traps. And he’d witnessed the trap going off, once. Poor Dwight had gotten distracted in trying to help them despite his orders to go get that thing off. Time went by faster than they expected, and with a sickening crunch, they’d been splattered with what was best assumed to be just blood.

He shook his head and began to walk around, soon finding Claudette poking her head out from inside a bush. “She just left,” she whispered, and they got to work on a generator next to a combine. 

Ace had managed to get trapped, and then untrapped, three times, while only being hooked once. He had rubbed his jaw in discomfort when Bill found him, two generators left thanks to his distraction and that of David. “I’m just Lady Luck’s favorite.” Ace plastered his grin back on and gave him a pat on the shoulder, a signal to continue, that everything was fine. 

Claudette and David had also been hooked and trapped once, trap taken off in the nick of time for each of them. Claudette had needed to run the gamut and went through all of the boxes, the last one holding her key to her relief. David had kept distracting the Pig despite his new headgear until Ace shoved him in the direction of a box with an “Andale!” and bought time, the brawler apparently catching some of Ace’s luck since that was the only box he’d had time for, and it had held his key.

He had kept himself from the Pig’s eyes for a while, somehow. A generator popped, Bill relaxing in the field and unable to hear the roar of bloodlust that the Pig let out when she charged. He cried out and ran as her blade sunk into him, leading her away from where he knew a generator was being repaired. No matter how far he ran, how much he managed to outwit her and buy himself a few seconds, she ran after him with a determination that unnerved him. 

Eventually, he fell, her blade cutting him down. He groaned out as she picked him up, grateful that there were no traps left for him. His relief was short lived though. Bill screamed as he felt the cold hook stab through his flesh and scrape bone, through his shoulder. Yet this time she didn’t move, as if relishing in the capture. Bill kept her gaze, knowing the longer she stayed the safer his companions were.

“Oi bitch!” An English accent crowed, and he watched David taunt her by having taken a doll from her boxes and showing it off, jostling it roughly. She actually growled, tensing with anger and giving chase. This bought time for Claudette to show up and unhook him, healing his wounds with unparalleled speed. “Thanks kid-” His heart pounded, warning him of the Pig’s return despite her successfully landing a blow on David, and he pushed Claudette into a closet before lunging over a window, drawing the killer’s attention to him. 

Ace apparently had done plenty of work, because as he ran with the Pig hot on his trail, the final generator roared in the distance, and the doors were fit to open. Windows and one or two pallets bought time enough that he was sure the doors were open, and he began to run toward the closest one, able to see over the corn that it was wide open, promising safety.

Then it was all over.

The Pig had unprecedented strength, striking the soldier down with a single blow. She almost seemed to make a show of wiping her blade clean of his blood, and her eyes glinted with malevolent glee under the mask.

Despite bleeding out on the cold dirt, the Pig eyeing him with a hate in her happy gaze, and the feeling like the fog around them was clearing, as he often felt before being murdered by the Killer directly, he grinned. Ace would be proud of that, he thought, laying back to accept his fate. She raised her blade to end his life, and he closed his eyes, not wanting to see it coming. 

“Like hell!” His eyes shot open as a still hurt David rushed in, injury seeming only to push him forward faster for a moment, using that burst to punch the small Killer with every ounce of power he had. She squeaked and recoiled, stumbling backward for a moment before her eyes flared with absolute fury. She immediately gave chase to the insolent slab of meat. 

In that moment, Claudette came from behind a wall, crouching down and apologizing. “Sorry, this might sting.” She stabbed him with a syringe and while it did prick, he stood back up like he’d never been hurt in the first place. “Claudette... Thanks, kid. You need to get out with Ace, I’ll make sure David gets out.”

She stood and looked around. “I don’t actually know where Ace-” A resounding boom gave them their answer, as a lit totem was destroyed somewhere and the Pig shrieked in more fury. They ran toward the door as David ran past, Bill running behind him, ready to take a blow to ensure the fighter would make it out. 

He felt Ace leave the trial, his job done and no doubt trusting that Lady Luck would smile upon them. With that, he pushed the two younger survivors out and jumped through the threshold as well, the Pig’s knife smacking the Entity’s black thorns behind him, and she gave one last scream of rage as the fog enveloped them again, guiding them back to the campfire.

He walked through the trees that waited where the fog began to fade down, the campfire almost welcoming him back. If it wasn’t, the others certainly were, Claudette and David visibly brightening as Ace just shot him with a finger gun once again. 

The others waved and greeted them back from trial, smiling and mingling as things returned to the pleasant lull. Bill sat down on a stump near the campfire, able to see everyone enjoy their time as he chewed the end of his cigarette pensively. 

The detective put a friendly hand on his shoulder as he stood next to the soldier. “Good to see you again, old man,” he huffed a single dry laugh, smiling. “Though seems you’ve got something on your mind.”

Bill shook his head, smiling at the sight before him, of all his fellow survivors around the fire, Dwight resting his head on David’s shoulder as they watched Ace try to teach Quentin, Feng, and Laurie how to do coin tricks like rolling it across his knuckles and deftly flipping it from hand to hand, over and over. He always had plenty of coins to offer up, so they all held the small metal bits. 

He could see Meg and Nea climbing one of the trees, hopping from branch to branch and soon tree to tree. Under one of those sat Claudette and Jake, the quieter of the two holding a small crow, offering it to the young woman to also hold or simply pet. 

“Nah,” Bill mumbled around the cigar, lighting it with a small Zippo. “I’m just enjoying the feelin’ of home, Tapp.” The circumstances were no better than last time, worse really with some kind of spider god eating their hope through murder games, but he enjoyed having a family again, and he’d fight to keep them safe, same as they’d fight to protect him and each other. 

He had found a new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I took a while to figure out how I wanted to end this fic, and I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.


End file.
